Simple Spectroscopy Exercise

Simple Spectroscopy Exercise At the heart of the spectroscope is a simple optic: either a prism or a diffraction grating. For this part of the lab, you will need the Lab 10. Stars Colors and Spectroscopy baggie in your Astronomy Lab supplies kit. This contains a cardboard-mounted diffraction grating. You will also need your smartphone to take photos of your experiments. Use caution when handling the diffraction grating; the surface can be easily damaged. Do NOT look directly at the Sun with the diffraction grating or any optical instrument. Figure 1 Lab 10 Diffraction Grating – Handle with Care ["Diffraction grating" by Florida State College at Jacksonville is licensed under CC BY 4.0 / A derivative from the original work] DO NOT LOOK AT THE SUN WITH THE DIFFRACTION GRATING Hold the diffraction grating near a window and look through the grating. You will see colors; this is sunlight being broken into its component colors. You will note that the colors you see depends on how you hold the diffraction grating and look through it. See the examples, below. # Light Source Your Photo through the Diffraction Grating Notes A Sunlight through a window Figure 2 "Dif grating 1" by Florida State College at Jacksonville is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Red light clearly visible on the right-hand side B Sunlight through a window Figure 3 "Dif grating 2" by Florida State College at Jacksonville is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Blue-violet light clearly visible on the left-hand side Using your smartphone’s camera and diffraction grating, image the following light sources listed in the matrix. You will need to experiment with holding the diffraction grating up to the camera. You should be able to copy and paste each of your photos into the Simple Spectroscopy Observing Matrix , then upload into the online classroom. Simple Spectroscopy Observing Matrix # Light Source Your Photo through the Diffraction Grating Notes 1 Sunlight through a window – see cautions about looking at the Sun! Blue violet light clearly visible on the left- hand side. 2 Sunlight outside – see cautions about looking at the Sun! Blue- violet light visible in the middle of the diffractio n, around the sun